1. Name

Huachuma, achuma, wachuma, and San Pedro are names for the Trichocereus pachanoi, a cactus with psychedelic properties, similar to peyotl (peyote). (Image 2) The Indigenous name “huachuma” is directly related to these cactuses’ physical properties as “a big cactus.” Cultural anthropologist Douglas Sharon explains that “The ethnoarchaeological and ethnohistorical information of Huachuma is supplemented by some interesting linguistic insights. Achuma is defined in a 1812 Aymara vocabulary as ‘big cactus’ and ‘a drink that makes one lose judgment’ . . . Apparently in the nineteenth century the verb chumarse (‘to get drunk’) was found in Peru and Chile.”[1]  

Colonial sources describe the cactus and its use pejoratively, displaying the typically negative “Colonial gaze” by stating that the huachuma cactus is a plant that “makes one lose judgment,” even though the vernacular Spanish name San Pedro is related to St. Peter, the Christian saint who bears the key to open Heaven’s doors. Sources compare the inebriation produced by this plant to the drunkenness produced by alcoholic beverages, not taking into account other intoxicating ingredients in huachuma concoctions, such as datura or brugmansia plants, that are added in folk medicine.

2. Introduction and Artwork

Titled Smiling God, the stele in Image 1 depicts an anthropomorphic figure in a bidimensional plane. The figure looks to its right, holding a cactus resembling the shape of a huachuma (Trichocereus pachanoi ) cactus displayed in Image 2. According to archaeologists and art historians, “The Smiling God was a version of the deity represented in the Great Image (Lanzón) or major cult object.” [2]

The figure in the stele acts in a ritual manner. The god, or perhaps a ritual specialist, wears a headdress consisting of intertwined serpents. Snake heads are close to the cactus, nearly touching it. Looking at the cactus, the two snakes’ bodies intertwine and then stretch back into the figure’s trenza, its hair braid that hangs down from its neck and back.

The figure’s face has a feline nose and cat-like fangs that resemble a jaguar or puma as they are commonly depicted throughout Indigenous traditions such as the Olmecs and the San Agustín. The size of the figure’s eye is unusually big, shaped as a half-moon, suggesting the visionary properties and effects after consuming huachuma. Feline claws are prominent on both of the figure’s hands. On the figure’s back is a geometrical figure with a glyph that resembles a human-like face.

The figure wears a two-headed serpent belt, and each of its two heads hangs toward the figure’s left and right feet. Cultural anthropologist Douglas Sharon highlights the significance of the two-headed serpent: “Depicted on the stone slab was a fanged, taloned supernatural figure with a two-headed serpent belt carrying a four ribbed Sanpedro.”[4] Four-ribbed cactuses were considered special to the Chavín people because they are rare and also because Andean cosmologies related their fourfold structures to the four cardinal directions, the Four Corners of the World.

3. Geography and Context

Huachuma or Trichocereus pachanoi (Image 2) cactuses grow in South America, mainly in Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia, but they can be found growing throughout the Andes, as shown on the map in Image 3. The area of distribution of Trichocereus pachanoi includes the northern highlands of Peru, where the ancient archeological evidence comes from, “but also the Peruvian north central highlands (Cordillera Blanca) and Bolivia (Cochabamba province, where it was called achuma.”[5]

Ancient archeological evidence of the Indigenous use of huachuma in the Americas comes from analysis of material remains that include pollen, seeds, and other organic remains in Peru. The archeological record reveals a long human relationship with Trichocereus pachanoi, at least 8,000 years. The huachuma is perhaps the most ancient American psychoactive substance with cultural continuity from ancient times into the present, due to its long-recorded use and its continued use in contemporary folk medicine in Peru.

4. Primary Sources and Evidence

Evidence of ancient huachuma (Trichocereus pachanoi) use is common throughout the Andes. As presented in Image 1, “The most famous iconographic find, the so-called ‘San Pedro bearing stele,’ or the ‘Smiling God’ in Chavín de Huantar, has been dated to 750 BCE.”[7] Indigenous traditions from Peru—including the Cupinisque, Chavín, Salinar, Moche, and Lambayeque—display robust evidence from ceramics, sculptures, and other iconography.

The oldest huachuma organic evidence was discovered in the Ancash region of Peru in a cave named the Cueva del Guitarrero. In this cave, inhabited continuously since 8600 BCE, a high concentration of the pollen from Trichocereus pachanoi has been detected, tracing back to the oldest phase of human occupation in the region. Carbon dating of pollen, seeds, and organic remains found there is associated with ceramic vessels, stone steles, and iconography. Ritual paraphernalia associated with the huachuma establishes the antiquity of human use of huachuma in this area; therefore, the introduction of this plant inside the cave was not incidental but intentional.[8]

Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century primary historical sources document huachuma use in the Andes. Cultural anthropologist Douglas Sharon writes that “In 1582, the Relaciones Geográficas de Indias described the drinking of aguacolla in native confessional rites among the Gonzalves in Ecuador […] In 1602 in Tacobamba, Bolivia, a native confessor conducted a ‘misa’ with ‘achuma’ during which he claimed to incarnate the Spirit of Christ.”[9]

5. Interpretation

Huachuma (Trichocereus pachanoi) is an ancient psychedelic plant or entheogen used in the Andean region since at least 8,000 BCE. When synthesized, the psychedelic alkaloid found in the cactus is known as mescaline. Ritual paraphernalia and ceramics found throughout the Andes provide rich evidence for ancient cultural uses of huachuma: sacramental, medical, and artistic/creative. Evidence of huachuma use prevails into current times as a key ingredient in traditional medicine.

The cactus has symbolic and spiritual meanings beyond a medicinal context. [10] “Besides this role as a catalyst for psychological transformation, achuma (or huachuma), also appears to have a cosmological function as indicated by the fact that the majority of the clearly rendered cacti in the archeological record have four ribs.”[11]Pre-Columbian cultures present huachuma cactuses correlated with the directions that structure all creation. Contemporary mestizo healing rituals throughout the Andes consider San Pedro cactuses capable of opening Heaven’s doors, just like St. Peter.

6. Implications

Within Indigenous civilizations of Peru, the use of huachuma (Trichocereus pachanoi) has been recorded in several cultures, showing a close relation with cosmology and revealing long-standing cultural continuity. Ritual paraphernalia for ancient huachuma rites include stones, highly polished wooden sticks, pottery vessels, and carefully-shaped mineral chunks of gold and silver. Uses include medical, ritual, divinatory, and creative or aesthetic, and these uses persist into the present day.

Anthropological research conducted in the Peruvian Department of Lambayeque, located 500 miles north of Lima, documents contemporary use in folk medicine. Revealing the therapeutic properties of the huachuma cacti, “In an all-night ritualistic curing ceremony, the healer and patient drink a potion made from San Pedro. […] the healer divines the cause of the illness afflicting the patient and prescribes herbs to administer to the sick person. Patients come not only from the village, but from many distant parts of Peru.” [12] In these rituals, where both healer and patient undergo the effects of huachuma, the healer usually spends several minutes talking with the patient about his or her problems and symptoms. Ritual songs in the rites may include Catholic liturgy, even in Latin, revealing the entanglement of different religious and spiritual traditions in huachuma rituals.

References

[1] Sharon, Douglas. “Sacred Sanpedro in Ethnoarcheological Context.” Ñawpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archeology 39, no. 1 (2019): 113.

[2] Sharon, Douglas. “Sacred Sanpedro in Ethnoarcheological Context.” Ñawpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archeology 39, no. 1 (2019): 86.

[3] Mesía Montenegro, Christian. “Festines y poder en Chavín de Huantar durante el período formativo tardío en los Andes centrales.” Chungará (Arica) 46, no. 3 (2014): 329. https://dx.doi.org/10.4067/S0717-73562014000300002.

[4] Sharon, Douglas. “Sacred Sanpedro in Ethnoarcheological Context.” Ñawpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archeology 39, no. 1 (2019): 86.

[5] Sharon, Douglas. “Sacred Sanpedro in Ethnoarcheological Context.” Ñawpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archeology 39, no. 1 (2019): 79.

[6] Padro, Julian, Diego De Panis, Pierre Luisi, Hernán Dopazo, Sergio Hernán Szajnman, Esteban Hasson, and Ignacio Soto. "Ortholog Genes from Cactophilic Drosophila Provide Insight into Human Adaptation to Hallucinogenic Cacti." Scientific Reports 12, no.1 (2022):13180-15 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-17118-x.

[7] Samorini, Giorgio. “The Oldest Archeological Data Evidencing the Relationship of Homo Sapiens with Psychoactive Plants: A Worldwide Overview.” Journal of Psychedelic Studies 3, no. 2 (2019): 74.

[8] Lynch, Thomas F. Guitarrero Cave: Early Man in the Andes. (Academic Press, 1980), 101.

[9] Sharon, Douglas. “Sacred Sanpedro in Ethnoarcheological Context.” Ñawpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archeology 39, no. 1 (2019): 112.

[10] Jay, Mike. Mescaline: A Global History of the First Psychedelic. (Yale University Press, 2019), 23.

[11] Sharon, Douglas. “Sacred Sanpedro in Ethnoarcheological Context.” Ñawpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archeology 39, no. 1 (2019): 113.

[12] Dobkin, Marlene. “Trichocereus pachanoi: A Mescaline Cactus Used in Folk Healing in Peru.” Economic Botany 22, no. 2 (1968): 191.